November 2022

The weather decided to get more fall-like and got us thinking about the holidays ahead.

On Monday, the 7th we did our before-the-snow-comes roadside clean up along the Center Harbor section of Route 25 and picked up 27 bags of trash. Fortunately, the morning we did this was one of the last warm days.

At the business meeting we voted to purchase $500 of items on the CHad wish list. We ordered sensory items, mainly for infants and toddlers which were on the list provided by Playopolis. The children should be receiving them soon.

Two members were given honors during both the October dinner meeting and the November business meeting:

Melvin Jones Fellowship (the highest award in Lionism) to Sally Sibulkin

and the Lion of the Year Award to Karen Baron

At our dinner meeting, we were very pleased to have Scout Master Ben Fullerton and three Boy Scouts from the troop we sponsor. They spoke about how Covid affected scouting and how the Cub Scouts now has girls as members. We also learned that our Scout troop has members from all the areas our club services. We are hoping to see some more Eagle Scouts in the next coupe of years.

Our major fundraiser, the raffle for a $5,000 prize is drawing to a close. Lions have put in well over 100 hours folding letters, stamping envelopes, stapling tickets, and putting on postage for ALMOST 6,000 letters. We had to have two different dates for assembling all the parts and the last batch went out on November 14. If you haven’t received your tickets in the mail yet, come to the Moultonborough Central School Holiday Fair on Saturday, December 3 to purchase them either outside the school or inside. The winning tickets will be selected at 1pm!

September 2022

Bingo numbers were up during this month and we continue to keep up the upper section of Sutherland Park (although due to quite a bit of rain this month we didn’t have to water quite as often.

We took in almost $700 in raffle sales in front of E.M. Heath’s on Saturday, September 17 and are thankful to all the people who purchased them. Good luck to all who will have tickets by the end of November on winning that $5,000 prize.

At our dinner meeting, our speaker was Deb Hoadley, Director of the Moultonborough Public Library. She was both enthusiastic and informative telling us about all the activities hosted by the library and all the opportunities there are for us to learn, craft, discuss, and enjoy.

We also celebrated the 90th birthdays of two of our very active Lion Club members, John and Joe.

OCTOBER 2022

As the leaves begin to change color and the turkeys and squirrels make it difficult to navigate the road, the Moultonborough Lions have an active schedule of events.

We will be doing several school vision screenings this month (we did Moultonborough Academy, grades 6-12, on September 17 and screened 199 students and staff). So far we have been to Gilmanton (and screened 174 students), Sandwich (and screened (64 students), and Holderness (screened 142 students) for the individual student scan for five different vision problems. If a student shows a visual irregularity, he/she is given (or mailed by the school nurse) a paper with the results to take to an eye doctor. We will be in Gilford on the 28th of the month.

We also provided free vision screening at the Sandwich Fair on October 8, 9, and 10 from 10 am to 4 pm. Our white shed is located against the fence opposite the road with all the food venders and on the way to the rides. You can’t miss us. Stop on by; it takes less than a minute to have yourself or any member of your family screened.

We will have one more live sale date of raffle tickets in front of EM Heaths on Saturday, October 8 from 9:30 – 2:30. Stop on by on your way to or from the Fair. At the end of the month, we will be mailing out a letter and tickets to people who have not had a chance to purchase them earlier. The last chance to buy tickets for the $5,000 prize will be at the Holiday Fair at the Moultonborough Central School on Saturday, December 4 before the 1:00 drawing of the winner.

And thanks to two members, our adopted spot, Sutherland Park, is all set for the season.

AUGUST 2022

August certainly started with a bang — literally — we have had thunderstorms both loud and somewhat destructive. And then there is the heat — the ending two weeks of the “dog days of summer.

Speaking of days and dogs… while we did have our first raffle sales on the Fourth of July, we followed that up with one of five selling dates in front of E.M. Heath’s. On July 23, we not only sold tickets, we also dog sat for a very nice dog while her owner went in and shopped. After all, our motto is, “We Serve!”

We will be selling raffle tickets on two dates in August: Sunday, August 14 and Saturday, August 27. Stop by while you are shopping and purchase your chance to win $5,000 and help out the communities we serve.

We have also place some yellow signs around town with an important message:

Hopefully, you have seen them as you are driving about the area.

District 44H (to which the Moultonborough Lions belong) is having its meeting at Camp Pride. In addition to bringing eyeglasses (We really appreciate all the donations of no longer needed eyeglasses in the baskets placed around the communities we serve), we will be collecting boxes of cereal which we will bring to the meeting and which will be donated to the food bank.

We are almost at the end of watering and weeding at Sutherland Park. September will see the purchase of some mums to bring in the autumn season.

At our August dinner meeting, the principal of Sandwich Central School, Jeremy Hillger, spoke to us about the effects of Covid on students and learning both locally and globally. He also thanked the Club for our continual purchase over the years of individual books for all the students.

JULY 2022

The new Lion’s Year started with a band both literally and figuratively. After a two-year hiatus due to Covid, Moultonborough hosted its Fourth of July parade and the Moultonborough Lions Club hosed the event, serving hot dogs, steak burgers, pasta salad, potato salad, coleslaw, chips, watermelon and drinks to a little over 200 people — both parade participants and spectators. We also used wooden utensils and biodegradable plates.

At our July 18 dinner meeting we hosted 4 of our scholarship recipients. This year we gave seven scholarships, totaling $11,000.

from left to right:  Elliana Marchand-Correia, Sarah Dubois, Katherine Anderson, and Dakota Mako.  All four graduated from Moultonborough Academy.  Elliana will attend Boston College, Katherine plans to attend Plymouth State University, and Sarah and Dakota will start at UNH this autumn. The recipients who were not able to attend 
were Ellie Homkohl (Center Harbor), Owen Carney (Sandwich), Chance Dawson (Moultonborough).
The recipients and their parents

We will have our first raffle ticket sales in front of EM Heath’s for a $5,000 prize on Saturday, July 23.

June 2022

The Moultonborough Lions distributed books at all three elementary schools in our service district: Moultonborough Central School, Sandwich Central School and Tuftonboro Central School. All in all, 515 books were given to individual students. This is one of our service activities that bring the most smiles — to us and to the students.

May 2022

Things are warming up — not only the weather, but our activities. In addition to selecting our scholarship winners for the 2022-23 academic year and having five Tuesdays of Bingo in May, we went to Camp Pride (on one of the hottest days so far) to do our adopted bunkhouse’s spring cleaning.

Then we collected money for the blind on Saturday, May 28 and Sunday, May 29. Thanks to help from our local cub scouts and the kindness of people stopping by EM Heath’s and Ace Hardware, the Club collected $1,200.

After our May dinner meeting, President Mark Cotrupi let the Helen Keller induction ceremony for three of our newest members (unfortunately Vicki and Gina were unable to attend).  This version of the induction ceremony is the one where the newest members are blindfolded and led up by their sponsors. 


Mark, Karen(sponsor), Laure, Celeste, Jay (sponsor), Sharon, and Pete (sponsor to one of the members who could not attend).




March and April

Still waiting for Spring-like weather to appear, but the snow is just about all gone.

Bingo has been happening Tuesday evenings.  We have begun to schedule vision screening in area schools, and we have purchased books for the elementary students in Moultonborough, Sandwich, and Tuftonboro and are waiting to hear back on dates to deliver them.
We continue to collect no-longer-needed eyeglasses as well as used and prescription pill bottles (with no names on them).  And our scholarship applications for high school seniors are in the guidance offices at Moultonborough Academy, InterLakes High School, and Kingswood Regional High School. The deadline for these applications is “received by April 23.”

SAVE THE DATE: On Saturday, April 9, 2022, we hold our first Penny Sale fundraiser (all monies collected to go back into helping people in need).  We have been collecting some wonderful donations as well as gift certificates from local businesses.  Ticket sales will begin at 3pm and the first drawings will start at 5pm.  There will also be a silent auction for gift certificates and some of the more expensive baskets and items.  Food will be available for sale.  We hope to see many people there to enjoy some fun and bring home some great find

April showers/downpours did not deter the Penny Sale. While we did not get as many people as predicted, we believe a good time was had by all and many people went home with quite a few items each. Wish we had counted the items, but our guess is well over 200, not including the silent auction items and the gift certificate bags.

A special thanks go out to the Lions and non-Lions who helped set up for the Penny Sale. And especially large thanks go out to the individuals and businesses who donated items, baskets, and gift cards. We appreciate the support for us and for the services to the community we preform. We were able to raise a bit more than $3,000.

Roadside cleanup

Spring is the time to clean up after winter and on April 10 — before the rains came Lions Mark and Sarah gathered 28 bags of roadside trash along Route 25 in Moultonborough. Next in line are our roads in Center Harbor and Sandwich.

Vision Screening

Two Lions braved some stormy winter condition in April to drive to Kenneth A. Brett school to do vision screening for the elementary students. 136 students were screened and 6 were referred to a vision specialists.

February 2022

The weather remained cold for the most part and we continued to get snow which was great for the Sled Dog Races in Laconia and the Ice Fishing Derby in Meredith.

Since February had four of every day of the week, we had four Bingo games. Attendance has been low which has been a positive for the winners, but we are hoping to see more players as the daylight hours lengthen and the weather gets warmer.

Between January and February’s meetings, the Club donated almost three thousand dollars to various community organizations and we have paid out $9,000 in scholarships to the class of 2021 scholarship recipients.

Speaking of scholarship applications, this year’s application deadline for high school seniors who reside in Moultonborough, Sandwich, Center Harbor and Tuftonboro is April 23, 2020.

Thanks to people donating empty prescription pill bottles at Bingo, the Center Harbor Congregational Church, and the Moultonborough School District (as well as individuals giving them to Lions), we have collected another 400-500 bottles to be eventually distributed to third world countries.

SAVE THE DATE: Saturday, April 9, the Moultonborough Lions will be holding their first Penny Sale at the Moultonborough Function Hall (formerly know as the Lions Club). You are welcome to drop off items on Tuesdays between four and nine pm, or email Karen Baron (nahant56@gmail.com) who is in charge of the fundraiser. Ticket sales will be from 3pm-5pm when the drawings begin. Food will be available.

Bringing in 2022

The Moultonborough Lions will be offering two COVID vaccination clinics at the Moultonborough Function Hall (formerly the Lions Club on Old Route 109) on January 14 and January 28. Both clinics will run from 9 am to 6pm and are open to all citizens  on a first come, first served basis. Persons wishing to be immunized with first, second or booster doses need only to bring ID, their covid shot record (if they have one) and a mask. The state will be able to able to accommodate 450 vaccinations on each day (any formulation). PLEASE NOTE THAT THE HOURS HAVE CHANGED FOR THE JANUARY 28 DATE. THE CLINIC WILL RUN FROM 10 AM TO 2 PM